Romance

Meeting People

Fiona Schultz is one of the younger daughters of Holly and Seth. Several in-game weeks pass, and she's relatively happy with her career: she’s reached the sixth level of the Medical career track and is in charge of an entire floor of the local hospital. Her Logic skill is impeccable: only a handful of Sims can outthink her, and no Sim can out-cut her in an emergency room. She is still a young adult but is well on her way to fulfilling her lifetime wish of being a world renowned surgeon.

And yet, something is missing. While she is a bit too career-oriented to be considering kids, she does feel a bit lonely time to time. It doesn’t help that she still lives with her ghost parents and her kleptomaniac sister. What’s so wrong with a date now and then, huh?

Fiona hasn’t taken much time to meet the local guys, so on her next day off, she heads off to a community lot to check out the studs around Sunset Valley. She decides to change into her swimsuit and scope out Old Pier Beach, since there’s sure to be some hot shirtless guys tanning themselves. She arrives there presently to this…

Not very many options, huh? Especially since both guys in the pic are related to her! Man… Well, we can at least get to know a few, can’t we? She starts with some basic social interactions, especially Friendly… > Get to Know and Romantic… > Ask If Single. This allows Fiona to get a handle on the guys’ traits and whether she needs to be a home wrecker or not. Getting a handle on the traits is especially important and cool because Fiona will respond if something conflicts.

Beau Lawson: unemployed, single, and wearing a white Matrix-style coat to a beach. Yeah, there’s a catch. Fiona decides to keep looking the next day. Clearly, finding that perfect compliment is a tough, if not impossible, long-term task. (Well, I could cheat by just making a male Sim to compliment her, but what fun is that?)

Fiona is due to age up, so she throws a birthday party for herself and invites every non-elder she knows. Problem is, she holds the party at her house; the ghosts of her parents scare the bejeezus out of her guests, making them run for the hills just as quickly as they got there. Well, she did see Al Guerra there, and he isn’t entirely ugly, so she invites him down to the beach after the party breaks up… even though he’s wearing that bloody Matrix coat too.

They chat… turns out they’ve got a bunch in common. Fiona gives the casual line: “I bet your girlfriend really loves that you’re into working out!”

Al replies: “Girlfriend? Oh no, I’m single.”

Fiona replies… well, she replies with a bunch of nonsensical happy sounds at this development.

They continue chatting at the beach, though Fi changes into her swimsuit—just because it’s so totally hot out here—and flirts with Al a little bit. Now, a Sim who has an obscene Charisma level or the right traits could be Woo Hooing on the first night. Fi has no such advantage, so she settles on the progress she’s made for today, wishes him goodbye, and heads home, although he still hasn’t broken through acquaintance status yet. Seduction is a science rather than an art, and there is no sense in rushing it, is there? Still, we need to work quickly… we don’t Al falling into someone else’s hands, like Shannon’s, after all!

Now Fi does have one single advantage: turns out that Al is one of her co-workers. The next morning at work, Fi is sure to select the Chat with Co-Workers job strategy at the hospital. This develops their relationship and they become friends presently. After work, Fi changes into something more casual, then calls up Al and suggests that maybe they should get a few drinks at the local diner. She uses the Invite Out command, targets the diner, and from there uses Get Drinks With… > Al Guerra.

After they exit the diner, Fi decides to lay it on a bit thick. She hits Al with every romantic social interaction available to her: amorous hug, compliments, flirts, pick up lines, the works. They advance to “good friend” status, and a couple more social interactions pop up. I want to go with the Confess Personality command, but it conflicts with her personality. She goes for holding hands, then decides to try her first kiss (in adulthood… what can I say, I neglected her as a teen and young adult!).

I tense, she tenses, she moves in, lips puckered, just as the sky turns night. What if it goes wrong? What if he rejects? What if he thinks she’s being too forward? What if he doesn’t like her as much as she likes him? What if her breath smells? What if he—

All RIGHT!!! That kicks their relationship up to “Romantic Interest” status, indicated by a heart in the Relationship Panel. One kiss is enough for now… night is coming too quickly, and poor Fiona has to get up early tomorrow morning to go into the hospital. Well, at least Al will be there!

Dating

Work was especially hard today, so Fiona takes a nap. This helps things out though, because a refreshing nap gives her a buff to help out her mood, which in turn will increase the chance Al will accept romantic interactions… and after that first kiss, Fi just wants more!

After waking, Fi decides she wants to check out Al’s house, but doesn’t quite know where lives. She heads into Map View, then sorts the tags by friends. She finds where Al lives, and we zoom into the house. We click the house proper, and we find that Al is home! If he hadn’t been, I could have moused over the gray command of the pie menu and seen where he was, hopefully to track him down. Such scouting is good to save your Sims time in just this situation.

If you have trouble finding him, save your game, then use the Edit Town command from the options menu. Once you’re back at the neighborhood screen, you can mouse over every single house to find your target. Remember where the target is, jump back into the game, and you’ll be able to then at least know where the house is to interact with it.

Anyway, Fi quickly eats and showers, then heads over to Al’s house. He—or rather, they—answer the door and invite Fi inside. Now, as a houseguest, you have great restrictions on what you’re allowed to do. You can’t just make yourself at home after all. The game is a bit sensitive here, you need to closely babysit your Sim as he or she conducts the visit. (At this point I really feel the positive effects of the AI, as I can trust Seth, Holly, and Shannon to behave themselves and survive while I’m focused on Fiona.)

A partial list of things Fi shouldn’t do are: taking a shower, cooking or otherwise eating out of the fridge (though eating a served meal is okay), sleeping in a Sim’s bed, repairing any broken object even if Fi is the one who broke it, or upsetting any of the household hosts by being rude or obnoxious. Shannon might go out of her way to upset her hosts (those Evil and Mean-Spirited traits kicking in), but Fi isn’t that kind of girl. If she does make a mistake, she’ll get a warning before being ejected from the house.

In fact, she gets that warning in fairly short order. Al’s son, Shad (who is oddly an adult just like Al himself is), started yelling at Fi for no reason. Well, it’s because they had no relationship… I wonder if Shad has the Hot-Headed or Mean Spirited trait? Anyway, Fi gets the warning because she yelled back—told you the game was a bit too sensitive. This just proves it: you need to babysit your Sim and his or her action queue and quickly cancel any negative social interaction before things get back.

Fi chats pleasantly to Shad, trying to actually get restarted on the right foot, despite she now has the Humiliated debuff. Al eventually finishes cooking a group meal, so she grabs a plate and chats to them as they all eat. Their relationship actually tops off in the process, mostly due to the boost she got talking to him at work. She decides to use a special romantic-type interaction here on him, asking: “Can I stay the night?” He agrees!

With that done, the handcuffs are now off, and she can make herself at home. Now, if she tries sleeping with Al, or in Al’s bed, that will still be considered being a “rude guest.” There is a way around it, however… She uses the romantic-type interaction called Propose to Go Steady. Al accepts, and they are officially recognized as boyfriend and girlfriend (or, as I prefer it, boySim and girlSim).

This status adds a minor restriction to their behavior: if they start getting flirty or romantic with any other Sim from here on out, the other will get excessively angry, perhaps to the point of violence, against the cheater or the cheatee… or possibly both. However, it also removes a few limitations, such as the aforementioned bed problem. She heads to the double bed, where she immediately passes out. Al comes in right behind her, sleeps with her too, and they snuggle as they slumber.

Moving In

After they wake, Fi realizes that this really could be love. She gets the wish to move in with Al and I promise it. I can fulfill the wish in two ways. Either she can move out, using the Move command from a computer; or she can invite him to move in with her by using a social interaction.

Now, the game will theoretically allow Fi to use a Move In command on Al to get him into the family. In practice, this doesn’t work that simply: Sims 3 uses a “momentum system” when it comes to social interactions. Think of the social interactions in any given category as being on levels. For romance, low-level interactions include the Shy Kiss or Flirt commands; mid-level commands would be Leap Into Arms and Make Out; high-level commands would be Woo Hoo and Massage.

The way the game works, Fi would be unable to just instantly use a Woo Hoo command on Al the moment he arrives in the house. Instead, she has to “work up to it” by using a bunch of low-level commands, which unlock the mid-level commands; then she uses the mid-level commands to unlock the high-level commands, which she can then execute. This momentum system plays a role no matter how close two Sims are; in this case, Fi and Al have completely maxed out their relationship meters to each other, and they still can’t jump into bed together instantly.

Further, this momentum can be broken if the social interactions get diverted to a different category. For example, let’s say Fi works on Al so much that the Woo Hoo and Try For Baby commands are available. Then, she decides to just gossip about Shannon and chat about the weather. If she tries to get romantic again, she’ll see that the Woo Hoo command has disappeared (and probably so has Make Out too). This is because she broke momentum by using friendly-type interactions instead of romantic-type, and now must start over with basic flirting to work him back into the mood for Woo Hoo.

We’re not sure if this is by design or if it’s a bug, but either way, it’s something to be aware of. It’s almost impossible for Fiona to see the command that would invite Al to merely live with her if we keep things strictly in the romantic category. She could propose marriage here with an extremely high-level romantic command, but she’s too traditional for that.

So instead, Fi does every friendly-type social interaction in the book: Gossip, Chat, Talk About Work, Praise Fantastic Book, and more. Eventually, the levels start going up, and she executes the Friendly… > Ask To Move In command. Al accepts!

Al moves in immediately bringing the household count to five. (I can choose to bring the rest of his family too, but who wants ‘em?) We have no room for him by default… remember, we’ve had a small two-bedroom house this whole time! Luckily, between the additional paycheck from Holly and the large amount of loot from Shannon, the Schultzes have enough to add a second story to the house. It’s enough to give Fi and Al a bedroom and private bathroom, and a nursery… just in case.

Al becomes a fully controllable Sim, bringing with him friends, skills, traits, and everything else associated with any Sim. He brings a measly $5000 with him too. It doesn’t matter, really: anything he needs, the Schultzes can provide him… and his paychecks will be going to the family funds!

Marriage

A few days pass, and Fi’s biological clock starts ticking (and I’m not just talking about the age meter). Al is deeply in love with her, and he decides to make it official… he warms her up with some romantic-type interactions, then uses the Propose Marriage command!

Fi accepts, and now their relationship changes status. They’re not married yet, of course, just engaged… and excited! Now they have two options for actually saying “I do”: they can hold a private wedding at will, or they can actually throw a wedding party. To hold the private wedding, one simply needs to use the high-level romantic interaction “Have Private Wedding” to the other. Everyone on the lot will run over and cheer while the bride and groom smooch, and that will be that.

Fi doesn’t want that, however… we’re going to have a nice wedding in a different lot! Fi uses a phone and selects “Throw Party At…” She chooses Central Park, sets the start time for 4pm, sets the attire to formal, and invites all her friends and family… and Al’s too, of course.

Because the party is being held remotely, the family needs to get ready early. The game will not send Fi and the rest of the park on their own. In fact, I actually hesitated while giving the orders, and Al wound up missing the family carpool to the park, forcing him to call a taxi. Whoops.

At the park, the bride and groom stand near the fountain. Al issues the romantic-type command Get Married. Because he issued the command, Fi will take his last name; she is now Fiona Guerra! If she had issued the command, Al would be Al Schultz. Fi is, as mentioned, pretty traditional though.

With the marriage official, Fi finally allows Al to Woo Hoo. In fact, Fi gets pregnant on the first try, so it seems that Seth and Holly will finally have some grandkids to scare!

At this point, the marriage is semi-permanent. Either can use the Mean… > Break Up social interaction to immediately do a divorce. Fi and Al are too much in love for that, though… but it might be good to know for your own Sims, huh?